[ih] first use of "email" (redux)

[Alex McKenzie]

On January 4, 1978 ARPA published a "Completion Report" for the ARPAnet project (http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/chris/DIGITAL_ARCHIVE/ARPANET/DARPA4799.pdf).  In that report there are discussions of what we call email on pages III-113 to III-115 and III-131.  In both instances the term "network mail" was used.  This leads me to believe that the word "email" was not in common use in the ARPAnet community in the second half of 1977 when the report was written.  So it is easy for me to believe that the 1979 date given by the OED is correct.

Cheers,
Alex



________________________________
 From: Dave Crocker <dhc2 at dcrocker.net>
To: Miles Fidelman <mfidelman at meetinghouse.net> 
Cc: "internet-history at postel.org" <internet-history at postel.org> 
Sent: Tuesday, June 4, 2013 11:23 AM
Subject: Re: [ih] first use of "email" (redux)
 

On 6/4/2013 3:44 PM, Miles Fidelman wrote:
> Apropos recent discussions of the "inventor of email"....
>
> Just came across this:
> http://public.oed.com/appeals/email/
>
> An appeal from the folks at the Oxford English Dictionary, seeking any
> use of the term earlier than 1979.


I've sent them a query, to find out their basis for citing 1979.

I also just search the msggroup and header-people archives for the 1970s 
and could not find an occurrence of "email" or "e-mail".  This surprised me.

d/


-- 
Dave Crocker
Brandenburg InternetWorking
bbiw.net
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